6-21-18 Orcas Chasing Salmon - A Good Sight to See

Thursday, June 21st
...by the end of yesterday J Pod, Onyx L-87 and Crewser's Group had all gone north...

....Crewser's Group?  Yes.  I decided to call the group of the four families who travel together, Crewser's Group to honor L-92.  I know at some point that might change, but for now, it seems fitting...more on that later...

...this morning J Pod and Onyx were spotted coming down Boundary Pass and into Haro Strait...
...when the whales were getting a bit closer, but still to the north and out of view...we were watching for them...then there were these 'all-of-a-sudden' moments!
...whales appeared, in the park, close to shore, going up-island...who were they???...Ts!...they went passed going north...it looked as if they were sort of angling offshore a bit (not unusual)...by then then were way in the distance...

...knowing that J Pod was coming down, attention was turned to looking for them...but nothing...yet...10 minutes pass...and all-of-a-sudden! whales surface directly in front of the lighthouse, on the edge of the kelp...it was those Ts!

...they were the T49As...T49A and her four youngest - T49A2,3,4 and 5...T49A1 has dispersed from the family, at least for a while...and T49A2 who has rarely been seen with his family over the last several years, and instead seen traveling with others, was present with his family today...
...the most stunning part of this is that the T49As had not surfaced for 10 minutes and they were heading away from the Residents at a fast pace - wild! 
I would guess that they heard J Pod, causing them to depart-at-speed!  The Ts have had these waters pretty much to themselves lately with no SRKWs in here and maybe they were surprised to hear the whales, with whom they do not associate...

J Pod traveled at their normal pace...the seas were rough, heard that in places there were six foot swells and more, making it challenging to spot the whales...and they were chasing salmon as they came down...

...by the late afternoon, some J Pod whales came up to the lighthouse and then turned and went back down island, where many had stopped just south of the park...

...several of us were glad to have had the brief encounter with the the few whales that we did...the J16s...the day before Scarlet J-50 seemed like she was either lethargic or 'pouting'...she was traveling well behind her sister Echo J-42 and Slick J-16, their mother...knowing that Scarlet is not looking good (from Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research, stated in an article), made it that more concerning...
...so today's encounter was hopeful, when all five of the J16s were together with Scarlet traveling with her mother...I know this is human interpretation based on visual and we don't really know what is going on, so can really only watch and hope that her health state will improve.

...Crewser's Group was encountered later in the morning when some whale watching boats were with another Transient group, the T65As, they 'stumbled upon Creswer's Group...heard from a captain that the T65As were also heading in the direction of the L Pod whales and it appeared that they too changed direction and departed the area quickly...we know this happens but both of these abrupt type of departures we haven't seen occur in recent years...

Crewser's Group continued on and traveled down San Juan Channel, passing the entrance to Friday Harbor and later exiting Cattle Pass in the afternoon...at the same time J Pod was on the west side as mentioned above...

...by the end of the day, it sure felt like these last couple days are like 'how it used to be'...whales all day long...but are they getting enough to eat?...they were definitely chasing salmon...always exciting to see that...but at the same time they were very spread out, which often indicates a scarcity of salmon...

...the posting date says 6-21, however, I am writing this post on Friday, June 22nd...the SRKWs have gone back out toward the open ocean today...and today the Albion test fishery had another count of 4 Chinook salmon.  
...I know that is nothing, but it has been either 0 or 1...so 4 seems 'great' in comparison...we'll have to wait to see if the whales will return in a couple days like they did earlier in the month when 4 Chinook were the count for the day...or if those four Chinook are the last of the incoming 'ones who got away'...